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PurposeTo determine what characteristics distinguish firms that conduct international business within three years of going public and six years from founding, and how these firms perform.Design/methodology/approachA logistic regression analysis is used to identify characteristics that distinguish firms that are international at the time they go public, versus those that are not. The paper also assesses post‐IPO performance and apply multivariate analysis to determine how performance varies among these firms.FindingsCompared to firms of similar age who do not pursue rapid internationalization, born‐global firms are generally larger, more diversified, and have more venture capital backing. Their founders, board members and managers exhibit more international experience. The returns 12 and 18 months post‐IPO are significantly higher for born‐global firms than for a control sample of firms who do not engage in rapid internationalization. Furthermore, those born‐global firms with joint ventures or acquisitions in several countries perform better than those that only export within the first six years since their inception.Research limitations/implicationsManagerial implications include having a board of directors with sound international business experience as well as using a venture capital firm to provide monitoring and oversight of operations at home and in the foreign market.Originality/valueThis paper is original in that it is the first to provide a financial markets‐oriented empirical investigation of the “born‐global” phenomenon using a sample of newly public American firms.

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